Super Bowl Sunday...

Well, I'm not a daily poster yet but you never know when that may change. Not enough time on my hands to dedicate to writing when I could be knitting.

I hate football, though, so I'm having my own super bowl here. I'm knitting through the super bowl. I figure I'll flip the channel to ABC periodically to see if the game's still on or not and I'll start when the game starts and finish for the day when the game ends. Should get in a nice bit of knitting that way.

Friday I met with a few knitting peeps at our local Barnes and Noble. We've got a lovely little group of very friendly women and we meet periodically. It's a varying group but it's a great group. I would love it if we had the same people (plus some new ones) all the time because I'm finding that I LOVE to be with other women that knit (men are welcome too, but there don't seem to be any male knitters in this area). It's difficult though. Pesky things like jobs, housework etc., just seem to get in the way... Now if we could be paid for all the time we spend knitting, that would really be something.

Anyway, we are participating in the cast-on party coinciding with the winter Olympics and I'm looking really forward to it. Although I've been knitting on and off for over 40 years, I've never tackled socks before. I've been watching quite a few women making socks now and I've become intrigued by the whole process. I've decided that a pair of socks will be my project for the cast-on party. In preparation (and because I know how I am) I've been investigating the various sites out there that demonstrate the mechanics of making socks and I actually think I'm "getting it." I'm the type that has to be able to visualize and conceptualize before I can actually do something. The shocking thing (to me, anyway) is that after about four hours on these various sites this morning, I actually think I get it. I now understand heel turns, gussets, etc. and can't wait to start my socks. I think I'm really going to like this.

And, to top things off, I actually did my first EVER gauge swatch last night. I wanted to see if the gauge of the sock yarn would actually drive me crazy or not (I'm used to working with aran and other thick yarns). I'm into instant gratification when I knit and I thought it would take me eons to see any progress on the sock yarn... well, it took no time at all and my swatch worked right up into the gauge that it called for, so I was not only impressed, I was very happy about that.

For my first venture into socks, I'm going to be using Knit Picks "Dancing" with its interesting blues, brown, black, etc. I'll probably make this first pair for my daughter. Poor kid, the two sweaters I made for her recently are too big for her. Hopefully the socks will fit and she'll have something I've made for her that will fit.

We live in hope, ya know?